He's Still The Hammer

It is often hard for me to understand the state of our society. I am not a dog lover. I suppose that I am still too few generations away from farm life to think that it's a good idea to have animals in the house. But how do you breed and train dogs to fight? What is the thrill of watching dogs attack, main and often kill one another? How do you decide to take your dog who lost but lived and choke it to death, electrocute it or hang it? What has to be absent in a man's soul to think that this behavior is recreation?
I despise football, but I agree with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's drive to rid his league of bad behavers. Employment in a sport is not a right; it is a privilege. It does not put you above the law, although far too many of those so employed have put themselves outside the law in recent years. No, Michael Vick hasn't been convicted of anything. But his decisions and associations have made him bad for business. At least for the time being, he has lost his job with the Atlanta Falcons. If he is convicted, he won't be an issue for the NFL. But they should go ahead and cut ties with him now. Rawlings got it. So did his shoe company. So should the NFL.
The Bears had the integrity to cut Tank Johnson. The Titans should terminate Adam Jones, and the Falcons should do the same with Vick.
Which leads to the home run record.
I want to like Barry Bonds, based on my childhood encounter with his father. I can't.
Barry has been a jerk. He has been a jerk to fans, teammates, opponents and the media. He has been the posterchild for spoiled athletes who will sign autographs only for those who pay, must be consulted by his managers for which rules he will tolerate and which he won't and even when it suits him to play and when it doesn't.
I want to admire his achievement. I can't.
The substances that Bonds is presumed to have taken, and that he apparently told the grand jury that he took without awareness of what they were, improve a person's eyesight. Discerning between fastball, curve and slider becomes easier. They add muscle and shorten the recovery time required after muscles are worked. As an athlete moves into their mid and late 30's and then 40's the value of that assistance cannot be overstated.
But just at a moment when sports is adding up to a great big "Yuck," someone steps up and reminds us all that grace and generosity and integrity are still around.
Hank Aaron taped a message for Bonds after a number was posted on Tuesday night. The Hammer talked about the history of the game, and the home run's place in that history. He expressed his pride at holding the record for 33 years. He acknowledged Bonds' accomplishment. Then he put sports and athletes in marvelous perspective: ""My hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams." This is precisely what athletics does, at its best. Whether it is Tiger Woods inspiring more black kids to take up golf, Jim Valvano inspiring people to perservere through all kinds of challenges, Rick Ankiel making it back to the majors after falling apart in 2001, or Hank Aaron completing the process that Jackie Robinson started on the baseball field in 1947, athletes are role models, regardless of what Charles Barkley says. They do enable us regular folk to dream bigger dreams and hope wider hopes.
When Mike Vick and Barry Bonds want to drag us all into gutter with them, Hank Aaron, Tom Glavine, Dale Murphy, Peyton Manning, David Ortiz, Tiger Woods, LaDainian Tomlinson, Shane Battier and Derek Jeter lead a long, long line of those who lift us up, show us what's possible, and make us feel a part of something wonderful.